Daughters of Anna Mae Aquash Still Seeking Justice

Debbie and Denise Maloney Pictou

"The daughters of Annie Mae Aquash and authorities have long held that Aquash died because [American Indian Movement] AIM leaders ordered her death out of suspicion that she was a government spy."---Rapid City Journal (2-21-11)

South Dakota's Attorney General Marty Jackley and Anna Mae's daughters seem to be keeping the pressure on leaders of the American Indian Movement (AIM) who were complicit in the December 1975 murder of Anna Mae Aquash.

For more information about the crimes of the AIMsters read American Indian Mafia by the retired FBI special Agent in Charge Joe Trimbach and his son John:

Mafia is the long-awaited book that fills the void in an often misunderstood chapter of American history. Judge William H. Webster, former Director of the FBI and the CIA, says Trimbach’s hard-hitting exposé is “…an important contribution to our understanding of what actually happened.”...

Indian Country will find Trimbach’s book a welcome addition to the historical record. Native publisher Paul DeMain (Oneida-Ojibwe), editor of News from Indian Country, says Mafia is a “must-read” for understanding those turbulent years. Award-winning Native journalist, Tim Giago (Oglala Lakota), declares that Trimbach not only challenges popular beliefs, he “takes apart Peter Matthiessen’s In the Spirit of Crazy Horse, movies like ‘Thunderheart,’ ‘Lakota Woman,’ and ‘A Tattoo on My Heart - The Warriors of Wounded Knee 1973,’ and exposes them for the frauds that they are. It is refreshing to finally hear the other side of the story." With common sense and wit, Trimbach likewise explores the historical deficiencies of Ken Stern’s Loud Hawk, John Sayer’s Ghost Dancing the Law, the Wounded Knee Trials, and Steve Hendricks’s The Unquiet Grave.

The Rapid City Journal (2-21-11) reports:

After three trials, the search for answers continues in the late 1975 slaying of an American Indian Movement activist, an incident that epitomizes the clashes between federal agents and Indian activists.

The daughters of Annie Mae Aquash and authorities have long held that Aquash died because AIM leaders ordered her death out of suspicion that she was a government spy.

Now, the death of a key potential witness in the case could further complicate the investigation of a crime that still stirs passions in Indian Country.

Observers saw Thelma Rios, another former activist, as someone who could answer lingering questions about the case and identify others involved. But the 65-year-old Rios' death earlier this month from lung cancer deprives prosecutors of a witness who has said she heard others saying Aquash should be killed.

"If Rios identified just one of them, it would be a link into the leadership," said Paul DeMain, an Indian journalist who's long researched the Aquash case.

South Dakota Attorney General Marty Jackley said he remains confident in what he called an open investigation.

"Not every piece of evidence that a prosecutor has gets in for a variety of reasons," Jackley said. "Those evidentiary issues, I feel, don't affect the overall resolution of the case."

Authorities believe three activists killed Aquash on the orders of someone in AIM's leadership. Witnesses said the three activists took Aquash from Denver, where she was living in November 1975, to Rapid City and eventually to the Pine Ridge reservation, where she was shot with a .32-caliber pistol and left to die.

One of the activists, Arlo Looking Cloud, was convicted of murder in 2004. Another activist, John Graham, was found guilty of felony murder in December. The third, Theda Clark, has never been charged.

Rios is believed to have called someone in Denver to have Aquash brought to Rapid City. Just before Graham's trial, she pleaded guilty to having a role in Aquash's kidnapping. As part of the plea, she signed an agreement with a summary of what she knew about the crime.

The statement includes the following details:

- Rios overheard two people discussing informants "more than once." She was told by two people to relay the message that Aquash should be brought to Rapid City.

- She gave Clark access to her Rapid City apartment, where Aquash was allegedly taken by the three activists.

- She overheard two people discussing how "the b---- should be offed."

The names Rios mentioned were redacted in court documents. Jackley and Matt Kinney, one of Rios' attorneys, declined to disclose the names.

One witness at Graham's trial, Candy Hamilton, said she overheard Rios talking with three people linked to AIM in the past: Bruce Ellison, Lorelei DeCora and Madonna Thunder Hawk.

DeCora and Thunder Hawk did not return messages seeking comment. In an interview, Ellison said he doesn't remember having any conversations with Rios about the incident.

"I have no idea what Candy Hamilton's talking about, either," he said. "All I can say is she's got a great imagination."

But Rios' death means prosecutors will have to bring any future charges without a crucial witness...

Denise Maloney Pictou, Aquash's elder daughter, has said she believes others with responsibility for her mother's death remain at large.

"It's always been our family's hope that the truth would get revealed during these proceedings, and it's unfortunate that (Rios) didn't get to see the results of that," Maloney Pictou said in an interview.

Aquash, a member of the Mi'kmaq tribe of Nova Scotia, was 30 when she died. Her death came about two years after she participated in AIM's 71-day occupation of the South Dakota reservation town of Wounded Knee. [See full text.]

Generalissimo Jim is still Brain Dead!

"The inquiry into NOAA’s conduct was requested last May by Senator James M. Inhofe, Republican of Oklahoma, who has challenged the science underlying human-induced climate change."

The New York Times (2-24-11) reports:

An inquiry [see here and here] by a federal watchdog agency found no evidence that scientists at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration manipulated climate data to buttress the evidence in support of global warming, officials said on Thursday.

The inquiry, by the Commerce Department’s inspector general, focused on e-mail messages between climate scientists that were stolen and circulated on the Internet in late 2009 (NOAA is part of the Commerce Department). Some of the e-mails involved scientists from NOAA.

Climate change skeptics contended that the correspondence showed that scientists were manipulating or withholding information to advance the theory that the earth is warming as a result of human activity...

The finding comes at a critical moment for NOAA as some newly empowered Republican House members seek to rein in the Environmental Protection Agency’s plans to regulate greenhouse gas emissions, often contending that the science underpinning global warming is flawed. NOAA is the federal agency tasked with monitoring climate data.

The inquiry into NOAA’s conduct was requested last May by Senator James M. Inhofe, Republican of Oklahoma, who has challenged the science underlying human-induced climate change. Mr. Inhofe was acting in response to the controversy over the e-mail messages, which were stolen from the Climatic Research Unit at the University of East Anglia in England, a major hub of climate research. [See the full text.]

More Uninformed Opinion from Kent Clizbe

Good CIA officers check their facts. The former spy Kent Clizbe doesn't even manage to ferret out the fact that the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) is not a federal agency. It is a federally-chartered corporation that advises federal agencies.

Kent Clizbe, who boasts of his former career as a case officer for the CIA, has been trying to get the famous climate scientist Dr. Michael Mann in trouble for fraud.

Mr. Clizbe emails professors and offers them a Department of Justice whistleblowers' reward if they will denounce Dr. Mann for fraud.

Kent Clizbe boasted to a student reporter that he used espionage techniques against the famous Dr. Mann, but all he was really doing was encouraging some greedy person to come forward and tell a lie.

The Daily Collegian (1-11-10) reports:

Former CIA agent Kent Clizbe sent letters to 27 Penn State faculty members last week, hoping to find a whistleblower in the "Climategate" controversy involving Penn State meteorology professor Michael Mann."As an intelligence collector targeting foreign or enemy government, we recruit an insider," said Clizbe, who sent the e-mails last week. "I'm attempting to recruit an insider to tell us what's really going on."

DeSmogBlog (1-11-11) has a recent account of Kent Clizbe's campaign against Dr. Mann and copies of letters he sent to Penn State and the University of Virginia.

So far, no scientist has taken the bait, even though Mr. Clizbe claims the scientists could make millions from a federal whistleblowers' program the Justice Department has.

In fact, the Justice Department has no problems with the Nobel-winning scientist; and the CIA often gives climate scientists security clearances so they can help the CIA study how climate change impacts America's national security. The CIA shares its satellite data and other classified sensors with cleared scientists so they can study climate change and global warming. According to the Pew Center, the head of the CIA's Center on Climate Change and National Security is Larry Kobayashi.

Kent Clizbe is now attacking another expert on climate change, Dr. Christopher Field, as well as various federal scientific agencies. It is ironic that Clizbe trashes government agencies for funding Dr. Field's work while seeming to support the missions of the CIA and DOJ, which often depend on the expertise of scientists to improve their work.

Kent Clizbe (2-22-11) states on his blog post:

An initial review of Field's background and snout in the trough seems identical to any number of "climate scientists" (Field's scientific background is Biological Sciences. His PhD research was on Leaf Aging in a California Shrub) sucking off the National Academy of Sciences, NASA, NOAA, and other government teats.

Kent Clizbe seems to be implying that Dr. Field doesn't have the credentials to be a climate scientist, but scientists who study climate change come from many different fields.

Good CIA officers check their facts. The former spy Kent Clizbe doesn't even manage to ferret out the fact that the National Academy of Sciences is not a federal agency. It is a federally-chartered corporation that advises federal agencies. The NAS site notes that it is a non-profit corporation that was signed into being in 1863 by President Lincoln. The scientist Dr. Christopher Field is a member of the National Academy of Sciences.

The NAS explains its mission:

The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) is an honorific society of distinguished scholars engaged in scientific and engineering research, dedicated to the furtherance of science and technology and to their use for the general welfare.

The NAS was established by an Act of Congress that was signed by President Abraham Lincoln on March 3, 1863, at the height of the Civil War, which calls upon the NAS to "investigate, examine, experiment, and report upon any subject of science or art" whenever called upon to do so by any department of the government. Scientific issues would become more complex in the years following the war, and to expand the expertise available to it in its advisory service to the government, the NAS created the National Research Council under its charter in 1916. To keep pace with the growing roles that science and technology would play in public life, the National Academy of Engineering was established under the NAS charter in 1964, and the Institute of Medicine followed in 1970.

Since 1863, the nation's leaders have turned to these non-profit organizations for advice on the scientific and technological issues that frequently pervade policy decisions. Most of the institution's science policy and technical work is conducted by its operating arm, the National Research Council (NRC), which was created expressly for this purpose and which provides a public service by working outside the framework of government to ensure independent advice on matters of science, technology, and medicine. The NRC enlists committees of the nation's top scientists, engineers, and other experts, all of whom volunteer their time to study specific concerns. The results of their deliberations have inspired some of America's most significant and lasting efforts to improve the health, education, and welfare of the population. The Academy's service to government has become so essential that Congress and the White House have issued legislation and executive orders over the years that reaffirm its unique role.

Agencies of the federal government often go to the NAS for independent opinion from America's great scientists. For example, recently the FBI asked the NAS to evaluate their scientific research on the Anthrax investigation.

The NAS (2-15-11) reports:

February 15, 2011 -- A National Research Council committee asked to examine the scientific approaches used and scientific conclusions reached by the FBI during its investigation of the 2001 anthrax mailings found it is not possible to reach a definitive conclusion about the origins of the anthrax in letters mailed to New York City and Washington, D.C. based solely on the available scientific evidence. The report does not assess the guilt or innocence of anyone connected to the case.
News Release
Full Report
Opening Statement
Video of Briefing
Photos

This statement show the independence of the NAS from the government. The NAS findings may have been a bit disappointing to the FBI, although the FBI does not base its case only on the science. They have other evidence of Bruce Ivins' guilt.

The Pontifical Academy of Sciences

"During its various decades of activity, the Academy has had a number of Nobel Prize winners amongst its members..."---Wikipedia

This is the emblem of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences which is headquartered in the Casina Pio IV in the Gardens of Vatican City.

The new President of the Academy is Werner Arber, a Nobel-winning Swiss microbiologist. He is the first Protestant to head the Pontifical Academy of Sciences. The Academy "is non-sectarian in its choice of members." According to the Academy's History link:

The Pontifical Academy of Sciences has its roots in the Academy of the Lynxes (Accademia dei Lincei) which was founded in Rome in 1603 as the first exclusively scientific academy in the world. The Accademia dei Lincei achieved international recognition, but did not survive the death of its founder, Federico Cesi.

In 1847 Pope Pius IX reestablished the Academy as the Pontifical Academy of the New Lynxes. Pope Pius XI renewed and reconstituted the Academy in 1936, and gave it its present name.

Since 1936 the Pontifical Academy of Sciences has grown increasingly international in character. While continuing to further the work of the separate sciences, it stresses the growing importance of interdisciplinary cooperation. Today the Academy's activities range from a traditional interest in pure research to a concern with the ethical and environmental responsibility of the scientific community...

The Pontifical Academy of Sciences is an independent entity within the Holy See.

In 2003, the Vatican issued a historical profile of the Academy. The Academy site lists its Academicians. Scientific documents are linked under Activities and Publications. The purpose of the Academy is to inform the Vatican on scientific issues so the Church can use this information in the development of its social doctrine. One recent publication is titled The Scientific Legacy of the 20th Century.

Some of the Academy's publications address the issue of climate change and global warming. The Academicians of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences do not accept the conspiracy theory that climate scientists are greedy liars who are trying to "trick" people. For the conspiracist perspective, see global warming denialists such as Oklahoma Senator James Inhofe, Texas Congressman Joe Barton, Virginia's Attorney General Cucccinelli, Lord Christopher Monckton, the Cato Institute, or the masters of the Kremlin. In early 2010, Russia's President Medvedev also called global warming a tricky campaign, but he seems to have backtracked from that postion since the summer forest fires of 201o.

The Russian physicist Roald Sagdeev is a member of the Pontifical Academy of sciences. He is one of the scientists who signed the open letter in defense of the climate research. I have posted a number of articles about Dr. Sagdeev.

Virginia's Attorney General Cuccinelli, who persecutes the climate scientist Dr. Michael Mann, cites a news article from the Kremlin's official press agency RIA Novosti in his attack on the EPA; but he doesn't consider the perspective of one of Russia's greatest scientists, Roald Sagdeev, the first Soviet scientist to be a member of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences.

When Dr. Sagdeev lived in the former U.S.S.R., he bravely published a 1987 letter in Izvestia that distanced the Soviet Academy of Sciences from the KGB's campaign to spread the lie that the U.S. Army made AIDS to kill blacks.

Acording to The New York Times (11-7-87):

Soviet scientists have disavowed charges in the Soviet-sponsored press that the AIDS virus was artificially cultivated at a secret American military base.

The scientists, Roald Sagdeyev and Vitali Goldansky, publicly distanced the Soviet Academy of Sciences from the accusations about American responsibility for acquired immune deficiency syndrome. They said they had protested the appearance of Soviet articles that repeated those contentions.

The disavowal was contained in Izvestia, the Soviet government newspaper...

Dr. Sagdeev is one of my heroes because he spoke on behalf of less powerful Soviet scientists who probably were afraid to challenge the KGB propaganda about AIDS. Dr. Sagdeev defended reason and science instead of pseudo-scientific propaganda that served the regime's political agenda instead of scientific progress. Indeed, the Soviet regime's official ideology, Marxism-Leninism, was a pseudo-scientific ideology that masqueraded as science.

In 1992, KGB chief Yevgeni Primakov finally admitted that the KGB had spread this propaganda:

The Russian newspaper Izvestiya (3-19-92) reported on March 19, 1992:

[Primakov] mentioned the well known articles printed a few years ago in our central newspapers about AIDS supposedly originating from secret Pentagon laboratories. According to Yevgeni Primakov, the articles exposing US scientists' 'crafty' plots were fabricated in KGB offices.

The homepage of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences has some interesting recent scientific articles. Wikipedia has a good description of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences and identifies the current Academicians by country. I would not be surprised if some Nobel-winning climate scientists, who are constantly hounded by the Denialist Party, are someday invited to become members of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences because they aren't just outstanding scientists, they are outstanding defenders of God's creation.

Wikipedia notes:

During its various decades of activity, the Academy has had a number of Nobel Prize winners amongst its members, many of whom were appointed Academicians before they received this prestigious international award.

Thelma Rios, Convicted of Complicity in the Kidnapping of Anna Mae Aquash, Dies of Lung Cancer

"Attorney General Marty Jackley extended his condolences to Rios’ family and said he didn’t expect her death to interfere with the filing of future charges in the Aquash case.---News from Indian Country (February 2011--not 2010 as printed)

Thelma Rios, who admitted her complicity in the December 1975 kidnapping and murder of her fellow American Indian Movement (AIM) activist Anna Mae Aquash (pictured), has died of lung cancer. She was 65.

Rios had negotiated a guilty plea in November 2010 of accessory to the kidnapping of Anna Mae, who was shot in the head on a desolate tract of the Pine Ridge Indian reservation in South Dakota not far from Wanblee. Anna Mae's body was found in a ditch by a rancher. She was the mother of two young daughters, Debbie and Denise Maloney.

Debbie is a Constable with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and has been active in the Annie Mae Justice Fund. Her sister Denise is the executive director of the Indigenous Women for Justice. Denise believes her mother was executed by AIM members who thought she knew too much about the murders and other criminal activities perpetrated by the American Indian Movement.

Arlo Looking Cloud and John Boy Graham have been convicted of Anna Mae's murder and may now have an incentive to be more forthcoming about the roles of senior members of the AIM leadership who are suspected of orchestrating Anna Mae's murder.

Richard Marshall, who was once Russell Means' body guard and who served time for the murder of Martin Montileaux in a bathroom stall of the Longhorn Bar in Scenic, South Dakota, was acquitted of the Aquash murder following a federal trial last spring. Attorney General Marty Jackley has refused to confirm that more charges will be forthcoming.

News from Indian Country (February 2011) reports:

Rios was convicted for her role in the death of Annie Mae Aquash. She admitted in court last fall that she relayed a message to other AIM members to bring Aquash from Denver to Rapid City in December 1975, because they thought she was a government informant. Investigators have denied Aquash was a snitch. Rios also said she opened up her apartment so Aquash could be interrogated.

Aquash was later found shot to death on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation. Two men have been convicted of murder in her death.

Rios was sentenced to five years in prison, but a judge suspended the sentence and ordered her to serve five years of probation.

Attorney General Marty Jackley extended his condolences to Rios’ family and said he didn’t expect her death to interfere with the filing of future charges in the Aquash case.

“While I do not condone the criminal venture that kidnapped and executed a young mother, it is important to recognize Ms. Rios’ acceptance of responsibility for her involvement and her willingness through the plea agreement to provide assistance to authorities,” he said in an e-mail to the Journal. “The prosecution has overcome many evidentiary challenges stemming from this 35-year murder case, and while this certainly may give rise to future evidentiary issues, I do not anticipate it will have an overall effect on holding those involved in this brutal murder responsible for their actions.”

U.S. House of Representatives Votes to Defund the IPCC

"Just before 2 a.m. on February 19, the war on climate science showed its grip on the U.S. House of Representatives as it voted to eliminate U.S. funding for the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. The Republican majority, on a mostly party-line vote of 244-179, went on record as essentially saying that it no longer wishes to have the IPCC prepare its comprehensive international climate science assessments. Transcript of floor debate follows."---Climate Science Watch (2-19-11)

Of course, the Senate is controlled by the Democrats. I no longer support the Republican Party because they aren't protecting us from global warming; instead they are lining their pockets with money from the fossil-fuel interests. Did the Republicans cut the subsidies to the oil companies?

DesSmogBlog (2-21-11) reports:

Over the weekend, the U.S. House of Representatives voted along partisan lines in favor of an amendment sponsored by Rep. Blaine Luetkemeyer of Missouri...to cut funding for the Nobel Peace Prize winning Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). [See the full text]

Kent Clizbe: Our Man in the Nut House

"The earth is suffering from global warming as a result of our excessive consumption of energy."---The Vatican (Scroll down.)

Until I noticed that many Republicans were in denial about the science of climate change and global warming, I was a Republican. I even voted for Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli; but now my eyes are open, and I see how the Attorney General has been lying to me. I am so ashamed of my ignorant vote.

When I see the Attorney General's picture with his beautiful young children, I can't help thinking of the fanatical propagandist Joseph Goebbels, who ultimately poisoned his own innocent children. This may seem like an extreme analogy, but if we continue to pour CO2 into the atmosphere, the environment is going to change so catastrophically that our civilization may collapse and our children and grandchildren will suffer the consequences.

Cuccinelli claims he is against abortion because it takes innocent lives, but as a Catholic he should know that the Vatican says that global warming takes innocent lives, too:

The earth is suffering from global warming as a result of our excessive consumption of energy.---The Vatican (Scroll down.)

At this moment, Attorney General Cuccinelli is trying to destroy the reputation and career of Dr. Michael Mann, a climate scientist who could really help future generations. If he were a real leader, Attorney General Cuccinelli would be helping Dr. Mann get his prophetic message to the people; instead, Cuccinelli hounds and persecutes this scientist.

Our great scientists are brilliant men who can help us put the breaks on global warming, but only if our political leaders lead us instead of lying to us and accepting money from the fossil fuel industry in exchange for suppressing the truth about global warming and climate change.

I didn't vote for President Obama because I believed a lot of the propaganda that he is a "leftist," but now I am starting to understand that the President is trying to help us "green" our economy so that we can fight global warming. President Obama is the real conservative, because he wants to conserve the environment and civilization for future generations.

Cuccinelli is not a conservative at all. He isn't conserving our legal system and our civil rights. He isn't conserving the independence of science. He isn't conserving the environment.

Why is Attorney General Cuccinelli in government if he hates it so much? This oppressor claims he wants to preserve our liberties. That's a lie! I think he is in government only to protect the fossil-fuel industry. His father was a career lobbyist for the American Gas Association, and the father's current company gave Cuccinelli's campaign 96,000 dollars. The father earns his living by offering his professional services to European clients. Who are they? I wonder if these "European" clients are Russian gas companies.

Cuccinelli also got 55,000 dollars from a mysterious criminal from Florida who used the stolen identity "Bobby Thompson." This criminal solicited money for his fake Navy Veterans' organization, and he passed some of this money to politicians. After Cuccinelli got his money, Virginia passed a law that exempted military charities from reporting to the government about their financial operations. This made it easy for criminals to disguise their operations as so-called "military charities." I voted for Cuccinelli, but now I see that this man is serving himself and the people who finance him, not the Commonwealth of Virginia.

Perhaps instead of calling themselves the "Republican Party" or the "Tea Party," Cuccinelli's crew should call themselves the "Denialist Party." That would be a fitting name for a radical party that constantly tells us cynical lies, trashes the federal government, talks revolution, and stalks scientists.

A Virginia global warming denialist who claims to be a former CIA clandestine operative, Kent Clizbe, has reportedly been sending emails to college professors at the University of Virginia and Penn State. He tells the professors that they can receive a multi-million dollar bounty from a federal government whistleblowers' program if they will denounce the famous climate scientist, Dr. Michael Mann, for fraud.

Kent Clizbe boasted to a student reporter that he used espionage techniques against the famous Dr. Mann, but all he was really doing was encouraging some greedy person to come forward and tell a lie. The Daily Collegian (1-11-10) reports:

Former CIA agent Kent Clizbe sent letters to 27 Penn State faculty members last week, hoping to find a whistleblower in the "Climategate" controversy involving Penn State meteorology professor Michael Mann.

"As an intelligence collector targeting foreign or enemy government, we recruit an insider," said Clizbe, who sent the e-mails last week. "I'm attempting to recruit an insider to tell us what's really going on."

DeSmogBlog (1-11-11) has a recent account of Kent Clizbe's campaign against Dr. Mann and copies of letters he sent to Penn State and the University of Virginia.

So far, not one college professor has denounced Dr. Mann for fraud. Denialists often depict climate scientists as greedy people who are trying to "trick" Americans, but if scientists are so greedy, why don't any scientists denounce Dr. Mann? I often read the Russian media, and I saw that the allegation that our climate scientists were greedy and tricky was the Russian propaganda. The Russian government depends on the income from its gas industry, and the powerful gas moguls own much of the Russian media.

The ex-CIA operative Kent Clizbe claims to have a "head-hunting" business, and right now he is hunting for the head of Dr. Michael Mann. His website notes the address of "our offices," but I looked on Google this is a residential area. Perhaps the headhunter works from home.

I wonder if Kent Clizbe is sending these emails to college professors solely on his own initiative, if he is working for a global warming denialist organization, or perhaps even for Virginia's Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli when he harrasses Dr. Mann. Kent Clizbe and Ken Cuccinelli seem to be pretty much on the same page when it comes to using email to harrass this Nobel-winning scientist whose work is posted on the websites of federal scientific agencies.

Attorney General Cuccinelli is trying to subpoena Dr. Mann's emails so he can cobble together a case for fraud against this famous scientist who made the famous "hockey stick" graph; still, a judge has ruled that Cuccinelli failed to demonstrate any probable cause. The Attorney General undoubtedly undoubtedly has access trained criminal investigators who work for the State of Virginia, and they obviously haven't found any evience that would satisfy a judge. Maybe someone hoped that by spamming the college professors, he could turn up someone to say something derogatory.

Attorney General seems like a big hypocrite to me. He tries to get Dr. Mann for fraud even though there is no evidence, but he kept the money of the obvious Florida criminal, Bobby Thompson, for a long time.

Dr. Mann's climate change research and his famous "hockey stick" graph have been vetted and reproduced by other scientists in his field. Most of his research grants have been from the federal government, not Virginia. The ex-CIA operative Kent Clizbe claims that people can get a federal reward for denouncing Dr. Michael Mann, but the federal authorities don't seem to have any problem with Dr. Michael Mann. His work is highly-regarded by the National Academies and our scientific agencies. His name often appears on the federal government's scientific sites. For example, Dr. Michael Mann's name appears on this NOAA site. For people like Ken Cuccinelli and Kent Clizbe, all these means is that all the scientists are in on the conspiracy.

Cuccinelli gets some of his slanders about our scientists from official Russian sources. In his suit against the EPA, Cuccinelli cited an English-language article from Russia's official press agency RIA Novosti, as evidence that British climatologists who study global warming are engaging in fraud. The RIA Novosti article was an edited version of a Russian-language article that appeared in the Kremlin-friendly business daily Kommersant, which is owned by the Gazprom mogul Alisher Usmanov. This billionaire has an education and career that suggest an affiliation with the former KGB. Since Kent Clizbe is writing a book about how the Russians infiltrate America, maybe he would like to put something about the Gazprom operative Alisher Usmanov in his upcoming book.

I can't help wondering if the self-proclaimed former CIA operative Kent Clizbe might be some kind of "secret policeman" for the denialists or if he is just some ignorant, retired self-promoter who is boasting about his past CIA employment to make people think that Dr. Mann has something to hide from CIA operatives.

Kent Clizbe's emails aren't very sophisticated. I don't think his claims about a reward from the federal government would fool a college professor; the emails sound like some kind of Nigerian spam letter.

Kent Clizbe offers the professors a reward based on a federal law; but the federal government isn't investigating Dr. Michael Mann, a Nobel-winning scientist whose work is highly respected by others in his field. If the federal government thought Dr. Mann were engaged in fraud, they would use official investigators.

Kent Clizbe may be an ex-CIA clandestine operative, but he is really off-message when it comes to the science of global warming: the real CIA accepts this science and has a Center on Climate Change and National Security.

Kent Clizbe boasts about his patriotism and CIA career, and I think he does this so people won't realize that the real CIA says global warming is a fact.

The head of the CIA Center on Climate Change and National Security is Larry Kobayashi, and the Center on Climate Change hands out security clearances to highly-qualified climate scientists, not subpoenas. People who attack famous paleoclimatologists may want to consider the passibility that they really may be barking up the wrong tree.

Recently, "Larry" was interviewed for an article titled "Our Man in the Greenhouse: Why the CIA is Spying on a Changing Climate." Later the name of this officer, Larry Kobayashi, was announced by the Pew Center.

I wrote to W. Russell, Attorney General Cuccinelli's deputy, and asked him if the ex-CIA operative Kent Clizbe might belong to Attorney General Cuccinelli, but Mr. Russell did not respond. The Attorney General's office is always trying to get something on the climate scientist Dr. Mann, but I think we should be investigating Attorney General Cuccinelli.

Here is the Wikipedia definition of "secret police":

Secret police (sometimes political police) are a police agency which operates in secrecy to protect the power and authority of a political regime or state.

Secret police forces are associated with authoritarian regimes, as they are, by definition, used to support the political power of an individual government or regime rather than upholding the common rule of law.

Instead of transparently enforcing the rule of law and being subject to public scrutiny as ordinary police agencies do, secret police organizations are specifically intended to operate beyond and above the law in order to suppress political dissent through clandestine acts of terror and intimidation (such as kidnapping, coercive interrogation, torture, internal exile, forced disappearance, and assassination) targeted against political enemies of the ruling authority.

Secret police forces are accountable only to the executive branch of the government, sometimes only to a dictator. They operate entirely or partially in secrecy, that is, most or all of their operations are obscure and hidden from the general public and government except for the topmost executive officials. This semi-official capacity allows the secret police to bolster the government's control over their citizens while also allowing the government to deny prior knowledge of any violations of civil liberties.

Secret police agencies have often been used as an instrument of political repression.

States where the secret police wield significant power are sometimes referred to as police states or counterintelligence states. Secret police differ from the domestic security agencies in modern liberal democracies, because domestic security agencies are generally subject to government regulation, reporting requirements, and other accountability measures. [Full text]

Al Qaeda and Associated Movements in 2011

The Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) has issued a new report on Al Qaeda titled A Threat Transformed: Al Qaeda and Associated Movements in 2011. The report was reviewed by the legendary CIA spy Stephen Kappes, Arnaud de Borchgrave, and Juan Zarate. The CSIS also publishes research on various national security issues, including energy and climate change.

The New York Daily News (2-8-11) reports on the findings of the CSIS report:

Osama Bin Laden's Al Qaeda is too busy playing duck and cover to carry out spectacular attacks, a new report has concluded.

The effect of the past 2 1/2 years of drone strikes in the tribal areas of Pakistan has diminished the terror network's ability to do anything more than hide from the CIA's Hellfire missiles, the Center for Strategic and International Studies concluded in a new analysis released Tuesday.

"Al Qaeda core currently possesses the motivation for continued attacks but is constrained by a limited capability to operate independently," wrote the report's authors, Rick (Ozzie) Nelson and Thomas Sanders.

Their conclusions were signed off on by Stephen Kappes, a legendary spy who retired last year as CIA deputy director...

The primary threats are now two Horn of Africa-based Al Qaeda franchises: Yemen's Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula and its key ally across the Gulf of Aden, Somalia's al-Shabaab group, which has dozens of U.S. citizens in its ranks.

Al-Shabaab's "operating environment is expanding" and it is "better positioned than almost any other affiliate to actively cultivate homegrown extremism in the United States," the report said.

With American cleric Anwar al-Awlaki emerging as an AQAP leader along with fellow American and "Inspire" propaganda writer Samir Khan, the terror group is "a concern for their potential to spur domestic radicalization," the report said.

A rash of homegrown terror cases - many inspired by Awlaki - has left U.S. government officials struggling, since they have "fewer tools for targeting isolated self-starters," particularly those with clean records.

Pete Ridley: Global Warming Denialism's Benighted Black Knight

"The earth is suffering from global warming as a result of our excessive consumption of energy."---The Vatican (Scroll down.)

The scientific agencies of the U.S. government, the National Academies, the CIA, the Pentagon, the United Nations, and the Vatican all say that there is man-made global warming.

A global warming denialist blogger who calls himself Pete “the ferret” Ridley (his own appellation, see comment) is threatening to “ferret” me out and tell the world my real name because I criticize denialists behind a nom-de-plume. (Ferret means "little thief in Latin.)

The supremely overconfident Ridley reminds me just a bit of the Black Knight in the film Monty Python and the Holy Grail. Pete "the ferret" Ridley has already claimed over at DeSmogBlog that Kent Clizbe (a self-proclaimed ex-CIA case officer who reportedly spams college professors and offers them a multi- million-dollar bounty from the federal government if they will denounce the climate scientist Dr. Michael Mann for fraud) can easily find out who I am with the help of his CIA contacts.

It is possible that Kent Clizbe really is a trained ex-CIA operative privateering as a political operative for some political entity or for a denialist politician such as Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli; but I doubt that Kent Clizbe has many contacts in the CIA, because he is off-message when it comes to global warming: the CIA isn't harrassing climate scientists; the CIA is giving climate scientists security clearances so they can help the CIA study the national security implications of climate change. The CIA official in charge of the CIA's Center on Climate Change and National Security is named Larry Kobayashi, not Kent Clizbe.

"Beavis" Ridley and "Butthead" Clizbe can easily "ferret me out" by asking Virgina’s Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli to blow the lid off "Snapple." I email his deputy W. Russell all the time to complain about the persecution of our scientists, and I use my real name.

Since Virginia's Attorney General Cuccinelli can’t seem to expose Dr. Mann, he might just have to settle for exposing old ladies who teach Catholic school. Perhaps Cuccinelli would also like to round up the Catholic Sisters who teach children about climate science, while he’s at it. Catholic schools don’t teach global warming denialism because it’s not science and it’s not Catholic.

Attorney General Cuccinelli cites the Kremlin’s official press agency RIA Novosti in his suit against the EPA, but the Vatican says there is global warming. Choosing between the Vatican and the Kremlin is not exactly a tough pick, like Thin Mints versus Do Si Dos.

Cuccinelli home-schools his older children; but if I am outed, young Virginians who attend Catholic school might end up discussing science and religion on that Facebook and Twitter the young people use these days to foment revolution.

If Cuccinelli outs me to this "ferret" or to this apocryphal ex-CIA operative, Cuccinelli might actually make a lasting, if unintentional, contribution to climate science; he might even trigger a Facebook revolution against foreign tyranny in Virginia, all in one fell swoop! After all, Cuccinelli is always encouraging Virginians to remember their revolutionary roots, and I hear him loud and clear!

Pete Ridley says I am a coward not to use my real name on my obscure blog and that he has a “low regard for those who hide behind false names.”

The low regard of benighted, hypocritcal ferrets who threaten me with apocryphal Clizbes does not especially trouble me. We are used to that in Soviet Studies. For example, the famous dissident samizdat publications Chronicle of the Catholic Church in Lithuania and the Chronicle of Current Events in the USSR were written by anonymous authors. That slowed down the political operatives of the Communist Party, the KGB.

While Pete Ridley may have a low regard for sharp-tongued, anonymous teachers, the not-very-sincere Ridley actually has a high regard for the anonymous hacker-criminals who stole the CRU emails and denounced the climate scientists anonymously. The criminal hackers are also big fat hypocrites who call themselves “honest men.”

Perhaps the benighted Pete Ridley grew up in the USSR where accusations of disseminating the CIA or Vatican line could get you charged with anti-Soviet agitation and propaganda; but so far, spouting the CIA and the Vatican line is not a crime in Virginia.

If you are an aficionado of irony, check the ferret’s droppings in the comments here and here.

Astroturf "Religious" Organizations Deny Global Warming and Denigrate Christians

This anti-religious poster from the Khrushchev era proclaims "There is no God!" Supposedly, there is no God because the Soviet cosmonauts went into space and did not see Him.

I am an expert on Soviet persecution and manipulation of religion. The Soviet regime tried to destroy religion and substitute so-called "scientific" Marxism-Leninism.

Still, the regime fully appreciated the power of religion; so they sometimes found it useful to coopt religion---even as they persecuted Christians---to advance the regime's political agenda. For example, when Hitler attacked Russia, Stalin put the Patriarch of the much-persecuted Russian Orthodox Church on the radio; and the Patriarch called on the people to fight for Russia.

These days, pseudo-scientific global warming denialists denigrate Christians who accept the science of man-made global warming. The denialists also create fake "religious" organizations that depict global warming as a scientific hoax.

The denialists' tactics in the service of pseudo-scientific global warming denialism remind me a lot of how the communist regime denigrated Christians and tried to replace Christian beliefs with so-called "scientific" Marxism-Leninism.

Here is a fake religious site called “Real Catholic TV” that tries to make it appear that “real Catholics” don’t believe in global warming, although the Vatican says officially that there is global warming.

The "Real Catholic" site is nothing to do with the Vatican and even confuses people with a big logo that says CIA at the top. The site exploits the Central Intelligence Agency acronym by calling themselves the Catholic Investigative Agency (CIA), though they have a tiny disclaimer at the bottom saying they aren’t the real CIA.

They aren’t the real Catholics, either.

The Vatican says there is global warming. Children and college students learn about global warming in Catholic schools. Global warming is viewed as a social justice issue that needs to be addressed by real science, not swept under the rug by energy industry propaganda. The Vatican supports the UN report on climate change, so that's the real Catholic position.

Here is another fake organization that claims to be made of Evangelicals—the Cornwall Alliance. The stupidities of the British religious bigot and global warming denialist Lord Christopher Monckton, who disparaged the University of St. Thomas as an ignorant “Bible college" are posted on this so-called "Evangelical" site.

One of the religious leaders of the Cornwall Alliance, Dr. James Tonkowich, also denigrates Christians who believe in global warming when he makes this bigoted, anti-religious allegation:

"Global warming is the central tenet of this new belief system in much the same way that the Resurrection is the central tenet of Christianity. Al Gore has taken a role corresponding to that of St Paul in proselytizing the new faith .... My skepticism about [anthropogenic global warming] arises from the fact that as a physicist who has worked in closely related areas, I know how poor the underlying science is. In effect the scientific method has been abandoned in this field.”

If you only read the home page, it seems that Dr. Tonkowich is claiming that he said these words and that he is a trained physicist, but if you click on the link, Dr. Tonkowich is actually quoting another person: "So wrote Atmospheric Physicist Dr. John Reid, quoted in a new report on more than a thousand scientists who dissent over the claims about man-made global warming."

That seems a very deceptive to me. Also, these one thousand scientists do not represent the scientific consensus. Almost all climate scientists say there is global warming. The National Academy of Science says that global warming is happening.

It is hard to believe that this dishonest clergyman was once a leader of the Institute on Religion and Democracy. Dr. Kent Hill, who led the IRD in the 1980s, would never have misrepresented himself like Dr. Tonkowich does.

Christians who believe in global warming are not cultists who have embraced a "new belief system;" rather, many Christians are educated people who read what our scientists and our religious leaders are learning about global warming. Educated Christians follow the discoveries of modern science and don't swallow the stupid lies of the denialist "scientific" and "religious" organizations.
We know they are often just the mouthpieces of the fossil-fuel industry.

In my opinion, the Cornwall Alliance is really a bigoted, anti-religious site that shamelessly disparages Christians who are concerned about global warming by comparing them to the members of a cult who have replaced the central tenet of Christianity with the belief in global warming.

Characterizing Christians as extremist members of a cult is a tactic the communists used to denigrate and persecute Christians. Since Dr. James Tonkowich used to work at the Institute on Religion and Democracy (IRD), he should know that. It is hard to understand how this Dr. Tonkowich was able to work for an organization that used to defend Soviet and East European Christians from religious bigotry.

It should be obvious that if religious organizations were really against global warming, the denialists would not need to make up FAKE religious organizations that deny global warming.

These denialist organizations that masquerade as religious organizations slander both scientists and Christians. They seem to have forgotten what the Ten Commandments says about bearing false witness.

Plenty of religious people look to religion for moral guidance while also maintaining a scientific outlook. Global warming is a moral issue, and educated Christians look to great scientists for guidance about how to solve this problem. I don't think that the great scientists who are researching global warming are trying to "trick" people. I think that the fossil fuel industry, politicians who take their money, and the Russian petrostate are trying to trick people.

Here is what the Vatican says about global warming:

God created our world with wisdom and love and when he had finished his great work of creation, God saw that it was good.

Today however the world is confronted with a serious ecological crisis. The earth is suffering from global warming as a result of our excessive consumption of energy. The extent of forested area on our planet has diminished by 50% over the last 40 years while the deserts are spreading ever faster. Three quarters of ocean life has already disappeared. Every day more than 100 living species die out and this loss of biodiversity is a serious menace for humanity itself. With the apostle Paul we can affirm: creation has been delivered into the power of destruction, it groans as in the pains of childbirth.

We cannot deny that human beings bear a heavy responsibility for environmental destruction. Their unbridled greed casts the shadow of death on the whole of creation.

Together Christians must do their utmost to save creation. Before the immensity of this task, they must unite their efforts. It is only together that they can protect the work of the creator. It is impossible not to notice the central place which natural elements occupy in the parables and teaching of Jesus. Christ shows great respect even for the smallest of all the seeds. With the biblical vision of creation as affirmation, Christians can contribute with one voice to the present reflection on the future of our planet.

Prayer

God our Creator, the world was created by your Word and you saw that it was good. But today we are spreading death and destroying our environment. Grant that we may repent of our greed; help us to care for all that you have made. Together, we desire to protect your creation. Amen.

Pete Ridley's Big Fat Double Standard

The moronic global warming denialist Pete Ridley does not like the fact that I use the nom-de-plume "Snapple" on my blog.

Ridley writes in the comments on Desmogblog (1-21-11) that he has "low regard for those who hide behind false names."

Ridley even makes the ludicrous threat that some ex-CIA operative named Kent Clizbe might track me down with the help of his CIA friends: "I’m sure [ex-CIA operative] Kent [Clizbe] could easily use his CIA contacts to track [Snapple] down..."

In fact, the not-very-sincere Pete Ridley actually has enormous regard for global warming denialists who hide behind false names: Pete Ridley celebrates the misdeeds of anonymous cyber-criminals who hacked into the University of East Anglia's Climatic Research Unit (CRU), stole the scientists' emails, and posted them on a Russian server in Tomsk right before the 2009 climate conference in Copenhagen.

The cyber-criminals, who did not give their names, hypocritically called themselves "honest men."
Why doesn't Pete Ridley ask the cyber-criminals to identify themselves if they are really "honest men"?

The CIA does not track down people who have blogs that explain the CIA position on global warming. The head of the CIA climate change unit is named Larry Kobayashi, and he doesn't sound anything like the supposed ex-CIA case officer Kent Clizbe. For one thing, Larry Kobayashi sounds like an educated person who is trying to help the whole world avert a terrible catastrophy, and Kent Clizbe sounds to me like a real phony in his self-promoting Internet articles.

CIA employees don't take orders from the likes of Kent Clizbe about whom to hunt down. In fact, Kent Clizbe is probably an embarrassment to the CIA, if he was ever in the CIA in the first place. After all, Kent Clizbe disparages both the FBI and the CIA analysts in his articles on the Internet. He harrasses climate scientists while the CIA gives them security clearances.

The CIA is probably mortified that an ex-employee is emailing professors and claiming that they will get millions of federal dollars if they denounce the famous scientist Dr. Mann, who demonstrated global warming in his famous "hockey stick" graph. The only people who are trying to discredit Dr. Mann are political subversives who are on the take from the fossil fuel companies and their blogger-dupes.

It seems to me that ex-CIA operative Kent Clizbe is undermining the CIA instead of supporting their mission of addressing the national security threat of climate change.

NAS Report about the Science Used in the FBI Anthrax Investigation

Today, the National Research Council of the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) published a press release (2-15-11) about their evaluation of the science used during the FBI investigation of the 2001 anthrax mailings. The FBI and Justice Department Response (2-15-11) follows the NAS press release.

Acording to the NAS, it was "not possible to reach a definitive conclusion about the origins of the anthrax in letters...based solely on the available scientific evidence"; however, the FBI case was also based on Bruce Ivins' words, actions, and consciousness of guilt. The "secret code" in the anthrax letters that the FBI discovered by reading a science book that Ivins threw away is very revealing.

The NAS (2-15-11) reports:

February 15, 2011 -- A National Research Council committee asked to examine the scientific approaches used and scientific conclusions reached by the FBI during its investigation of the 2001 anthrax mailings found it is not possible to reach a definitive conclusion about the origins of the anthrax in letters mailed to New York City and Washington, D.C. based solely on the available scientific evidence. The report does not assess the guilt or innocence of anyone connected to the case.
News Release
Full Report
Opening Statement
Video of Briefing
Photos

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The FBI and Justice Department response (2-15-11) to the NAS review of the acientific approaches used during the investigation of the 2001 anthrax letters states:


The following is in response to the National Research Council (NRC) of the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) report “Review of the Scientific Approaches Used During the FBI’s Investigation of the 2001 Anthrax Letters” (hereinafter "report").

“The FBI appreciates the efforts, time and expertise of this group of highly respected professionals of the academy. The academy was asked by the FBI to conduct an independent review in appreciation of the significance of the anthrax investigation and the groundbreaking nature of the science involved and its role in resolving the case. We commend the committee formed by the academy for a report that provides valuable guidance and better prepares the FBI to respond to attacks of a similar nature in the future.

“Among other findings, the committee confirmed the value of the emerging field of ‘microbial forensics,’ which proved significant in solving this case. This scientific technique established a critical lead as to the origins of the anthrax used in the attacks, allowing investigators to focus investigative resources and efforts. Ultimately, the late Dr. Bruce Ivins was determined to be the perpetrator of the deadly mailings. The FBI and Department of Justice were preparing for prosecution at the time of Dr. Ivins’ death.

“As the report recognizes, this was an investigation of almost unprecedented scope, complexity, and duration. Its origins were in the immediate aftermath of the 9/11 attacks when the FBI was unsure of possible links to those attacks and concerned about follow-on attacks. The investigation necessarily moved at a rapid pace, proceeding on two parallel fronts: a traditional investigation, involving tracking leads and conducting interviews, and a scientific one, led by the FBI Lab and included scientists from outside of law enforcement. From the outset, the scientific and traditional investigations were mutually reinforcing. Each helped guide and direct the other. The report notes the complexity of the parallel tracks of the investigation and how aspects of each track informed decisions to proceed with or abandon particular lines of the investigation.

“As the report notes, one of the most significant scientific approaches undertaken in the case—the field of microbial forensics—was being developed as the investigation unfolded. While the biological and chemical analytical methods applied in the investigation were neither new nor unique, the application was both innovative and groundbreaking. The committee’s findings highlight the emerging role that microbial forensics played in this investigation and its promise for future investigations. The report also recognized the FBI’s unprecedented efforts to form outside partnerships within the scientific community and the value that their expertise can lend to a criminal investigation of this magnitude.

“The committee’s report reiterates what is and is not possible to establish through science alone in a criminal investigation of this magnitude. The committee’s focus was on the more novel scientific approaches used in this investigation and did not review the traditional forensic methods and techniques employed or the significant body of evidence gathered through traditional law enforcement techniques. The committee also concluded that it is not possible to reach a definitive conclusion about the origins of the B. anthracis in the mailings based on the available scientific evidence alone. The FBI has long maintained that while science played a significant role, it was the totality of the investigative process that determined the outcome of the anthrax case. Although there have been great strides in forensic science over the years, rarely does science alone solve an investigation. The scientific findings in this case provided investigators with valuable investigative leads that led to the identification of the late Dr. Bruce Ivins as the perpetrator of the anthrax attacks.

“Over the course of the investigation, the FBI and the Postal Inspection Service devoted 600,000 investigator work hours to the case and assigned 17 special agents to a task force, along with 10 U.S. Postal Inspectors. The investigation spanned six continents; involved over 10,000 witness interviews, 80 searches, 26,000 e-mail reviews, and analyses of 4 million megabytes of computer memory; and resulted in the issuance of 5,750 grand jury subpoenas. Additionally, 29 government, university, and commercial laboratories assisted in conducting the scientific analyses that were an important aspect of the investigation.

“The FBI believes that today’s report will increase the public’s understanding of the exhaustive effort that resolved one of the most extensive investigations in the history of the FBI.

“The FBI and Justice Department investigative summary of evidence developed in the ‘Amerithrax’ investigation and numerous attachments are accessible to the public and were posted last year to the Justice Department website at www.justice.gov/amerithrax under the Freedom of Information Act. In addition, roughly 2,700 pages of FBI documents related to the Amerithrax case are accessible to the public and were posted last year to the FBI website at http://foia.fbi.gov/foiaindex/amerithrax.htm under the Freedom of Information Act.”